Financiére

My first post about an actual food and I choose to talk about the ‘Financiére’. The financiére is a small French cake. It is quite simply a light and moist sponge cake with a crispy crust. While the financier does not get much prominence in recipe books, it is quite popular in good patisseries in France.

‘Visitandines’ have been made in French bakeries for many years. They were made in muffin moulds or any small mould. The visitandine was meant to be a finger food and was popular in the area near the Paris Stock Exchange. The bankers and stock brokers would want food which could be eaten quickly and without getting their hand dirty and therefore this cake became popular. However it was only in 1890 that French Pastry Chef Lasne came up with the idea of baking the cakes in small rectangular moulds, so that they resembled gold bars. The time, place and audience was right and the financiére was born.

Financiére are made using egg whites, flour and powdered sugar, like any sponge cake. The ingredients that lend unique flavour to financiére and set them apart are the almond powder and the beurre noisette (brown butter). Though financiére are popularly made in silicone moulds today, the original technique is to generously grease cake moulds and bake the cakes at a very high temperature to gain the crispy crust. The almond, coupled with the beurre noisette lends the cake a nutty flavour while the crunchy exterior and the moist interior warm the heart,

The financiére we made in our first year of bakery were made in silicone moulds and came out beautifully. The below mentioned recipe is the one we followed.

Ingredients:

Egg Whites                           900 grams

Castor Sugar                         1100 grams

Almond Powder                     425 grams

Melted Brown Butter              650 grams

Flour                                    650 grams

Almond Flakes                       200 grams

Method:

• Whip the egg whites and castor sugar to a stiff foam.
• Fold in the almond powder, melted brown butter and flour, taking care not to collapse the egg white foam.
• Pour into financiére moulds that are greased and sprinkled in the base with almond flakes.
• Bake at 356^oF (180^oC) for 30 minutes or till golden brown in colour.
• De-mould and cool slightly to achieve a hard crust.

Hope you enjoyed my post. Do keep me posted with comments and pictures if you do try this recipe or if you’ve tried some other financiére recipe that has come out well. Thank you.